000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

2 Second Sunday of Advent/Year A
and in Second Temple Judaism; that it shows up prominently in Paul
demonstrates his continuity with rather than his difference from this tradition.
Yet, differing views on relations with Gentiles also were present
throughout the Second Temple period.
Our reading is a compilation of Zion motifs that appear throughout Isaiah:
(1) Jerusalem is the cosmic mountain at the center of the world, for
example, 10:12, 32; 11:9; (2) the Temple is the center of Jerusalem and of
the world (4:5; 8:18; 24:23, for example); (3) Gentiles will gather from all
directions in Jerusalem (45:14–23; 60:1–18).
Significantly, our passage refers to the Temple as the “house of Jacob
[bêt ya‘aqôb]” (2:3, 5). The story of Jacob’s exile in Mesopotamia and his
return to the land of promise (Genesis 25–35) parallels the story of the
Judeans exported to and returned from Babylon. Our passage indicates
that the judgment passed on Judah and Jerusalem in 2:6–4:1 now lies in
the past and a new hope for the future has been opened up by the faithfulness
of God to the people Israel.
Part of this new promise/hope is that the “peoples . . . shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall
not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more” (2:4).
This promise has patently not yet been fulfilled; in the twentieth century
“at least 100 million human beings lost their lives in war—on average 3,500
a day.” 1 Guiltily and sadly we are bound to recognize the violence that we
continue to inflict on each other, on other creatures, and on the created
world that God has given us as a home in which to live. Like the Judeans of
old, we too need to “cease to do evil and learn to do good” (Isa. 1:17).
The lectionary subverts any triumphalism on our part. On the last Sunday
before the First Sunday of Advent/YearA, it presents us with Luke’s
account of the crucifixion of Jesus (23:33–43), a reminder that Isaiah’s vision
of a world freed of violence has not yet come to pass and that the Jewish claim
that the world has not yet been redeemed holds true. And it pairs today’s passage
with Matthew 24:36–44, where Jesus insists that “no one knows, neither
the angels of heaven, nor the Son” when the coming of the Son of Man
will occur. This is very much a season of Advent rather than arrival.
Second Sunday of Advent/Year A
Isaiah 11:1–10
Today’s passage continues the theme developed in Isaiah 7:10–16 and
9:2–7 (please see the Fourth Sunday of Advent/Year A and Christmas Day